China’s electrical energy use over the past 30 years is a hockey-stick curve, climbing steeply because the nation industrialized, constructed dozens of mega-cities, and have become the world’s manufacturing heart. Although China’s financial system has slowed lately, electrical energy demand is simply climbing. Given the nation has pledged to succeed in carbon neutrality by 2060, they’re going to want far more renewable energy than they presently have.
To assist them obtain that aim, the federal government just lately introduced plans to construct the largest hydropower dam on the earth.
Medog Hydropower Station, as will probably be referred to as, will blow different hydropower dams out of the water (pun supposed), with an estimated annual technology capability triple that of the world’s largest current dam (which, maybe unsurprisingly, can also be in China). The 60-gigawatt mission will have the ability to generate as much as 300,000 gigawatt-hours (or 300 terawatt-hours) of electrical energy per yr. That’s equal to Greece’s annual vitality consumption.
The dam will likely be constructed on a river in Tibet referred to as the Yarlung Tsangpo, with development carried out by the government-owned Energy Building Company of China. It is not going to solely be one among China’s greatest infrastructure initiatives ever, will probably be some of the costly infrastructure initiatives ever, with an estimated value of a trillion yuan or $136 billion (sure, billion with a “b”).
Maybe unsurprisingly, China is already residence to the world’s largest current hydropower dam: Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River stands 594 toes tall (Arizona’s Hoover Dam is taller, however Three Gorges is wider) and has a producing capability of 22.5 gigawatts. By comparability, the largest hydropower dam within the US is the Grand Coulee in Washington state, and it has a producing capability of 6.8 gigawatts. China is the world chief in hydropower deployment, accounting for nearly a 3rd of worldwide hydropower capability. A lot of these dams are on the Yangtze (a few of them constructed by robots!) and a few are on the identical river the place the Medog mission will likely be constructed.
The Yarlung Tsangpo river begins in western Tibet, flowing east after which south, the place it merges with India’s Brahmaputra then flows south by means of Bangladesh and into the Bay of Bengal. It’s the highest river on the earth, and a 31-mile (50-kilometer) part within the South Tibet Valley drops by a pointy 6,561 toes (2,000 meters); there’s a great deal of untapped potential for all that transferring water to show some generators on its means down.
However the mission will not be with out its challenges, each engineering and political.
Environmental teams say the dam will disrupt ecosystems on the biodiverse Tibetan Plateau. Tibetan rights teams see the mission as a primary instance of China exploiting Tibet’s pure assets whereas harming native communities. The dam’s development would require folks to be relocated, although doubtless not as many as Three Gorges, which uprooted and moved 1.4 million folks. The Medog dam will likely be larger, but it surely’s in a extra sparsely populated space.
India and Bangladesh have each expressed considerations in regards to the dam, because it might alter the circulation of the river downstream the place it runs by means of these nations. There are additionally considerations in regards to the space’s geological stability, because it sits on the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian continental plates and is taken into account tectonically energetic. An earthquake might destroy the dam and trigger catastrophic flooding. In actual fact, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake killed 126 folks and broken 4 reservoirs simply final week.
Nonetheless, Medog received’t be a traditional dam within the type of one large wall constructed to carry water behind it, like Three Gorges or the Hoover Dam. As a substitute, 4 12.4-mile (20-kilometer) tunnels will likely be blasted and excavated by means of a mountain referred to as Namcha Barwa to divert the river. The water flowing by means of these tunnels will flip generators connected to mills earlier than operating again into the Yarlung Tsangpo.
The Chinese language authorities says the Medog mission will assist it obtain the nation’s carbon neutrality objectives. In 2023, coal was nonetheless China’s principal supply of electrical energy technology by a protracted shot, supplying 61 % of the nation’s electrical energy. Hydropower was a distant second at 13 %, adopted by wind, photo voltaic, nuclear, and gasoline, in that order.
Building is slated to begin in 2029, and if all goes as deliberate—which might be spectacular for a mission of this scale—it should take 4 years to finish, with the dam starting industrial operation in 2033.